Do you think bike frame size is less important these days?

Still going to blame you lot if my bike is the wrong size :P

I think I told you I thought 50 would be on the small side. I'm only an inch taller than you, I've had quite a few different bikes in the low 50s, and we as females have different physical proportions to men. But, hey, you listened to the boys, so on yer own head (or lower back) be it :)

I just wanted the next comment to not be the obvious one.

I think I told you I thought 50 would be on the small side. I'm only an inch taller than you, I've had quite a few different bikes in the low 50s, and we as females have different physical proportions to men. But, hey, you listened to the boys, so on yer own head (or lower back) be it :)

We'll see when the bike comes!

Just to annoy MrSmyth, I am 6'1'' and ride a 58.

And I find the standover height just right.

We'll see when the bike comes!

I'm sure it will be fine anyway. You can always adjust the seatpost/experiment with stems till you're comfy.

Do you spend much time standing over your bike ?

What's it like actually riding it ?

on my next post I'll travel back in time to use proper units :)

as Peter White says:

"So, how do YOU want to balance on YOUR bike? Do you want to emphasize speed and acceleration? Do you care mostly about comfort and enjoying the scenery? The answers to these questions determine how you position the saddle, not some computer program or someone's system of charts and graphs. How your best friend fits his bike should have no bearing on what you do even if he has exactly the same body proportions as you. YOU know why you ride a bike. Only YOU know what compromises you are willing to make in order to achieve your purposes on a bicycle."

i'm not annoyed. just slightly bemused by how many people think it's worth spending money on £300 colourful plastic wheels but the idea of spending money on getting a bike that fits them is beyond them. which if you are going to ride it any reasonable distance is quite important.

you only have to see the nodders twiddling down the road hips and shoulders rocking away to see that most people have their saddles too high and bars too narrow, maybe they think that riding fixed means you have to hunch your shoulders and lock your arms straight?

riding a bike on the road should look effortless not like a nodding monkey on acid.

I like the nodding monkey on acid look. It makes me giggle.

I like the nodding monkey on acid look. It makes me giggle.

me too. :-)

I like the nodding monkey on acid look. They sell it at Wiggle.

How much dorra?

To you I can give special price, fiddy dorra.

just buy a charge mug 2 sizes too small, a long seatpost, some risers and a hacksaw.
i don't think wiggle sell hacksaws?

i don't think wiggle sell hacksaws?

How did they make this then?
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Womens/11/Aqua_Sphere_Suzy_Two_Piece/5360041370/

just slightly bemused by how many people think it's worth spending money on £300 colourful plastic wheels but the idea of spending money on getting a bike that fits them is beyond them. which if you are going to ride it any reasonable distance is quite important.

That excludes a whole bunch of people who don't spend £300 on plastic wheels and cannot afford more than a budget bike but still want to ride, without pain or problems. There are people on here who constantly equate acceptable levels of comfort with expense; cycling has always, and should remain, for everyone. In this spirit...

I'm just slightly bemused by how someone comes on here expecting to be pandered to and spoonfed by people they don't know and who don't owe them anything, when a google search "frame sizing bike" reveals all you need to make a sound basic judgement on what sizes to be interested in on ebay, including tables of seat tubes, top tubes, standover heights, stem reaches, saddle positioning and a whole bunch of other things to get you running at the right geometery,along with Sheldon Brown's marvellous site, which seems no longer to be touted as the starting point for everyone coming back to bikes. You read, you digest, you make an informed decision and if you are buying second hand - believe it or not - you are either lucky or patient. Really, if I can do it, so can you.

And to the poster who is well into her second or third week of shouting "look at me! look at me!! yes but look at meeee!!!" on here for some strange reason - don't blame anyone else but yourself if you end up with the wrong size when you so obviously can't be arsed to do anything off your own back. No-one on here owes you anything.

PJs - that made me do a big snigger. (Hurriedly disguised as a sneeze to look as though I'm not shirking).

jesus, i wasn't expecting to yield so many results. All very helpful, i agree that the smaller frame feels like riding lo-pro most of the time, i've never done a long ride on it tho, i think the most has been about 40 miles in a day with breaks, whereas the time when i found the fuji most comfortable was cycling from london to cambersands, only thing that hurt then was my knees, and im pretty sure that was a fairly natural reaction to trying to ride fixed for 65 miles on 48/15. Each has there merits i guess. The smaller frame is definately faster and the compact geometry means its nippy round london, which is kinda what i want.

That excludes a whole bunch of people who don't spend £300 on plastic wheels and cannot afford more than a budget bike but still want to ride, without pain or problems. There are people on here who constantly equate acceptable levels of comfort with expense; cycling has always, and should remain, for everyone.

all you need is an experienced cyclist (or a good LBS) to look at you sat on a bike and riding it. if there is a fundamnetal change needed it's usually obvious to spot. this will get you close to a good fit. you can't do this online however.

It may seem like a silly question, and i know bike companies are all making those shitty compact frames

Compact frames are not shitty.
They allow people like me (5'7" with 30" inseam) to safely stand over a bike that fits them with regards to effective top tube.

but it seems that the advent of mass produced bikes has allowed longer seatposts and stems that allow for more frame sizes to fit more people.

It may seem like this, but it has'nt.

I am 6'2 and a bit, and ride two bikes, one i built which is 53cm c-t and a fuji track which is 61cm not sure if its c-c or c-t, but i find the fuji considerably more uncomfortable in almost everyway, bar the fact the smaller frame has a slight toe overlap problem. What do you think?

I currently ride a 51cm track frame (51cm ETT) with a 110mm stem; and
a 52cm cyclocross frame (54,5cm ETT) with a 80mm (effective length) stem.

My ideal stem length would be ~100mm, but even with these two similar sized bikes I've had to compensate alot with stem length.

I could'nt imagine riding bikes with a 7cm difference.

all you need is an experienced cyclist (or a good LBS) to look at you sat on a bike and riding it. if there is a fundamnetal change needed it's usually obvious to spot. this will get you close to a good fit. you can't do this online however.

true - but do the research well then the lbs should be looking at you and giving the stem or seatpost a tweak or two, nothing more..

I'm contextualising this in terms of buying an old bike or frame of ebay or on here btw, seeing as that's what so many people are plainly doing and it's what I do as I don't like the OTPs and can't afford me a nice Chas Roberts etc

there were a couple of nice roberts down the velodrome last night, and a beautiful mercian. porn-a-licious.

I'm in the process of buying a new bike on insurance proceeds. The shop only wanted to know standover size. I thought that a bit odd. it's a track frame and it's about 2 -3 cm smaller than my road frame which I was properly measured for. the bike shop said track frames always come up smaller that road frames.

That also sounded odd. Why should that be the case?

Should I just go back and tell them to give me a frame that's bigger even if it means I'm touching the top tube if I standover it?

track bikes and TT bikes are generally a couple of cm's smaller to try and a achieve a more aero position, but if ur riding on the road then this is largely irrelevant. However the fact that they ONLY asked for your standover height is odd..

Still going to blame you lot if my bike is the wrong size :P

Did you measure yourself yet?
No?
Fail.
I told you so.
Etc.

what bike have you ordered?